Roogoo

Part Jenga, part Tetris, and part Fisher Price, Roogoo is a clever take on the block-dropping puzzle subgenre that will challenge both your brain and your willingness to stop playing.

Wrapped around the story of a planet pillaged of its resources by the evil Meemoo (think “demonic chipmunks”), Roogoo sports six chapters and 44 puzzles. With controls simple enough for anyone — the bumpers rotate the platforms and the A button makes blocks drop faster — your ultimate goal is to guide the shapes safely to the bottom of the screen. Myriad obstacles will obstruct your path, including flipping platforms, closing valves, Meemoo that block your way down, and even bats that carry your stacks of blocks back toward the top.

The difficulty in getting from start to finish varies wildly depending on your puzzle-game acumen, but somewhere in the four-hour ballpark is a reasonable expectation. Along the way you’re guaranteed to do your fair share of cursing, both at yourself for making stupid mistakes and at the game for when you believe it cheated you with a flipping platform.

 But to the designers’ credit, Roogoo never leaves you feeling frustrated or defeated. Though many of the puzzles are challenging, all are certainly surmountable.

Roogoo’s primary fault comes when you’re contending with sword-wielding Meemoo and you have to bop the lone unarmed one in a group of five or six on the head in order to proceed. Together they look like one giant purple glob, making it very difficult to identify your target. Depth perception can also be tricky at times, particularly among tall stacks of blocks.

Nevertheless, Roogoo is a treat for anyone with a penchant for puzzlers. And be sure to try the Party Play mode with three pals — it’s a competitive/cooperative hybrid that’ll have you blaming each other for your failures while laughing the whole time.